Nikkei Rebounds 1.2%, Toyota to Post Record Earnings

4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo rebounded after the largest selloff in eight months after Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic reported better than expected earnings. Sony is also said to progress towards a deeper than expected corporate restructuring. The yen traded near 101 against the dollar.

Stocks in Tokyo rebounded after the largest selloff in the indexes in eight months yesterday. Earnings from Panasonic, Mitsubishi Estate and Toyota Motor Corp lifted market sentiment and Sony was said to progress towards deeper corporate restructuring.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 171.91 or 1.2% to 14,008.47 and the Topix index jumped 23.37 or 2% to 1,162.64.

The yen rose to 101.44 against the U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp surged 330 yen or 6% to 5,830 yen after the auto maker raised its operating profit estimate for the fiscal-year ending in March to 2.4 trillion yen or $23.7 billion and U.S. sales in 2014 at approx 16 million units from 15.6 million a year ago.

Toyota estimates consolidated net revenue in the fiscal year of 25.5 trillion yen and net income of 1.90 trillion yen.

For the financial year to March, Toyota lowered its sales forecast for North America by 1.1% to 2.6 million units.

Sony soared 70 yen or 4.6% to 1,600 yen and the electronics products maker plans to sell its personal-computer unit “Vaio” of Japan to Japan Industrial Partners Inc for total consideration between 40 billion yen and 50 billion yen or in the range of $394 million to $492 million.

The company is expected to announce the company restructuring along with the sale plan as early as next week.

Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd gained 2.8% to 2,481 yen after the real estate developer affirmed profit for the year to grow to 58 billion yen on sales of 1.07 trillion yen.

Panasonic Corporation surged 18.9 to 1,262 yen after the Japan-based electronics products maker reported group sales in the third-quarter ending in December climbed 9.4% to 1.97 trillion yen from 1.80 trillion yen a year earlier.

Net income in the quarter jumped 20% to 73.7 billion yen compared to 61.4 billion and basic earnings per share climbed to 31.87 yen from 26.53 yen a year ago.